Romans Week 13, October 9, 2022

Introduction

The Requirement of the Gospel: Faith

Romans Romans 4:1–25: Faith: What the Gospel Requires

“Making grace believable to the contemporary reader is the almost insurmountable problem of the novelist who writes from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy.”

Flannery O’ Connor

When you truly wrestle with the depth of depravity and truly come to grips with your own sin it is at that point that grace becomes almost insert insurmountably unbelievable. What God would forgive us for what we have done? Grace grace God's grace is it greater than all our sin?

Today we explore an illustration of a truth that Paul wants us to understand. He wants us to understand the grace of God brought through the gospel of Jesus. And he's going to employ several characters from the history of the Jewish nation to teach this lesson.

You see, we are leaving behind what many have argued is the greatest paragraph ever written. Where Paul unpacked the extent and justification for justification. When you read the last 10 verses you understand unequivocally how and why you and I can stand forgiven before God. And nothing teaches quite as clearly as an academic and the legal lesson right?

The reality is you and I forget most things we learn in lecture format. The reality is I struggle every week to make sure I come up with illustrations and imagery and ideas that help the lesson to come alive for you. And that's exactly what Paul intends to do today. He's presenting an illustration of justification by faith. The Jews in his audience knew the story of Abraham backwards and forward and so abraham's going to be used as a known figure to illustrate something that no one fully grasped... The grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So let's dive into a little bit of abraham's story and see how Paul uses Abraham to teach us about the requirements of the gospel. The requirement of the gospel is faith in case you were wondering :)

Abraham, The Father of the Faith

Romans 4:1–8 ESV

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Paul sets up this whole passage on Abraham a few verses earlier:

Romans 3:28 ESV

28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

The most influential voice for the Jews was Abraham. Every Jew traces his or her ancestry too the father of their faith Abraham. And so Paul calls our attention back to Abraham and the kind of faith that he had. Because just like the Jews we look back to Abraham in part as the father of our faith as well.

Remember one time when Jesus was interacting with the Jews He challenged them in their identity.

John 8:39 ESV

39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,

And again we see how much the Jews revered Abraham

John 8:53 ESV

53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

The Jews revered Abraham. And truly Abraham was the best person for Paul to use as he's talking about a life of faith. Abraham lived by faith in God and God counted him righteous for his faith. There was no law, there was just Abraham trusting and obeying God. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

The cool thing is Paul shows us that God actually announced what he was going to do through Abraham. He didn't use the words of the gospel and he didn't talk about Jesus coming to earth but

God did promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him.

Genesis 12:3 ESV

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and even more so the kind of righteousness that God blessed Abraham for was not his works but it was his faith

Genesis 15:6 ESV

6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Think about where God had Abraham and genesis 15 in some way God called Abraham to leave his family and his Pagan background. He probably left multiple gods behind him! God called him to serve him in this new land that he was heading to. And in a journey to the land of Canaan and then for awhile to Egypt Abraham demonstrated faith time and time again. And after this faithfulness God gave her promise of blessing to and through Abraham.

Romans A. Abraham: The Forefather of Faith (4:1–8)

“What is required of you is faith and a sincere life, not loftiness of intellect or deep knowledge of the mysteries of God.”

Abraham knew very little in terms of details about God but he chose to trust God. He trusted God based on what he knew about God in the moment.

Think about how that applies to our lives. None of us know the whole story of our life. None of us know the whole plan of what's going to happen and none of us fully understand God and yet God calls us just as he did Abraham to trust him and to walk with him one step at a time.

I love how missionary Andrew Murray captured the truth of this principle and of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20.

Ephesians 3:20 ESV

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Romans A. Abraham: The Forefather of Faith (4:1–8)

“Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation”

Think about it simple faith was all it took for Abraham to be used by God to bless the whole world explanation point simple faith is all that Paul asked the believers in the church in Rome to practice and simple faith is all that God asks of us today. It is not faith that is necessarily easy but it's something any one of us can do because the same God who led Abraham and Paul leads us today.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The difference between wages and gifts

Romans 4:4–5 ESV

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

This last Friday was payday for two of my employees. Because they put in the time I owed them the dime. It was my obligation to them. Saturday, however, was not payday but instead it was birthday day. My daughters were invited to two different birthdays... I don't remember ever being quite this popular when I was a kid. Nevertheless that's besides the point at each of these birthdays the girls brought in gifts. The gifts were expected because of the context but they were not required. Wages are something you enter into an agreement to do that I'm and get the money. Gifts or acts of generosity you do for free.

As Paul says in verse 5 if we do not do the work but instead choose to trust God because our work is a Insufficient, God will count that faith as righteousness.

Don't you love that turn of phrase in verse 5 believe in him who justifies the ungodly. He justifies those who don't deserve it but he gives that justification as a gift.

A reference to David

Romans 4:6–8 ESV

6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

What Paul is showing us here is that Abraham sets a precedent from the very beginning for righteousness by faith. And then very quickly after that in the grand scheme of history David confirms this kind of righteousness as well.

And if Abraham was seen by the Jewish nation as the father of the faith. Then David was certainly beloved as one of the great examples. I'll be at David was full of contradictions and problems God also considered David faithful because of his consistent repentance and turning towards God.

Paul quotes David from psalms 32. And a lot of biblical scholars believe that this Psalm it is in some way tide to the mess of the situation with Bathsheba and uriah. Remember, David lusted after Bathsheba, used his royal prerogative to have his way with her and then murdered her husband to cover up the sin. Think about the terms that Paul uses in Romans chapter one at the end. Certainly many of them could apply to David and his actions in the debacle that was Bathsheba and uriah.

David was an extraordinary example of someone who sinned greatly. But he was also an example of someone who did great acts of righteousness as well. But it was not because of David acts of righteousness that he was forgiven before God it was his repentance and his faith. When David is confronted with his sin he immediately folds and confesses and repents. And when David repents God takes away his sin.

Remember when the prophet Nathan confronts him about his sin? David immediately agrees with God and repents

2 Samuel 12:13 ESV

13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

Psalm 32:5 ESV

5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

As Paul says

Blessed is the man who’s sin the Lord does not count against Him.

The 3 Witnesses—Abraham, David, and Paul

Under the Old Covenant AND New Covenant man is justified by faith!

The Question—>Is this faith only for the circumcised?

Romans 4:9 ESV

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

Think about it. All the examples we’ve looked at today: Abraham, David, and Paul were all God’s people. They all underwent circumcision.

Abraham-Also the father of those who HAVE faith.

Romans 4:9–11 ESV

9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,

Paul answers the question that he anticipates his readers raising with the simple question of timing. it's a crucial question for any follower of Jesus to ask. When was Abraham circumcised? Was he circumcised after he was counted righteous or before? Paul answers his question marvelously in verse 11

I love how one commentator puts it!

Romans B. Abraham: The Father of All Who Have Faith (4:9–17)

Abraham was justified by faith as a human being, not as a Gentile or a Jew! This establishes faith as the standard for all human beings.

The amazing part of the story of Abraham is that he was declared righteous and then it wasn't until 14 years later that God has him become circumcised. Abraham truly is the father of those who come to God by faith.

Romans 4:12 ESV

12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

God made Abraham the father both of the entire Jewish nation that he called to obey the law and God made a ram the father of those who walk in the same faith that Abraham walked in for those 14 years he lived before he was circumcised.

So all of us who believe, Jews and Gentiles are children of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7 ESV

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

God’s children are therefore not that biological children of Abraham but instead the children who live in response to God’s promise.

Romans 9:8 ESV

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

We are the children of the promise of God.

Judaism was a system and a framework meant to point the hearts of men and women God the grace of God. Jesus cried out calling on the Jews and religious leaders to be more than just religiously good looking on the outside.

Matthew 23:27 ESV

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

How God’s promise is realized through faith.

Romans 4:13–15 ESV

13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

Romans B. Abraham: The Father of All Who Have Faith (4:9–17)

“If circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham’s justification by God, with all the promised blessings that accompanied it, the law had even less to do with it”

Allow me to attempt to make clear what Paul is saying here. God gave a promise to Abraham that he would bless the whole world through abraham's descendants. And God did many works through the descendants of Abraham. And then 430 years after God's covenant with Abraham God gave the law. The law is what we focus on so much when we look at the Old Testament. The law is what defined how the Israelites lived and how they related to God. So one would be forgiven for thinking that the law replaced the promise that God made to Abraham. One would be forgiven for assuming that the law is a new definition of God's promise to Abraham and therefore it replaces it it's a new understanding of how we should relate to God that is through the law. That's what the Jews lived like they believed they lived like they believed that the law had replaced the promise God made.

Paul demonstrates here that the covenant God made with Abraham is still very much in effect.

Galatians 3:17 ESV

17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.

“Heir of the world”??

Perhaps you stopped and wondered for a moment at that phrase heir of the world in verse 13. It's a curious turn of phrase that Paul chooses to use here. Because in fact God nowhere makes a promise to Abraham that he will be heir of the world. God promises land Abraham. God promises blessings to abraham's descendants.

What many commentators choose to do to interpret this passage is to understand it in terms of what Jesus will do. Jesus will exercise rule over earth in the future. And those who are abraham's descendants by faith or in other words those who are followers of Jesus will inherit the earth and reign with Christ in the end times. So there's a sense where Paul is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit kind of expanding the interpretation of this passage further period expanding and giving us a broader understanding into the future of what God intends.

The important thing to see here though is that God promises that he gave were given apart from the law and before the law and therefore God is and has been in the business of giving non law based promises for thousands of years and to today as well.

Law versus Promise

Romans 4:14 ESV

14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Paul wants us to see the difference between two different ways of receiving something. With law language obedience as demanded. With promised language a gift is given. If the promise of the gospel is given on the basis of the law then we can never receive the gospel because we can never fulfill the requirements of the law. On the other hand if what God has done is given us a gift a promise apart from the law then we can receive it. All that a gift requires is faith. This is true in our own lives. The laws in our community and in our homes require obedience. We obey the laws or we receive punishment. But the gifts we receive they require us to simply exercise faith in receiving them. We receive a gift from friends and family in the same way we receive a gift freely from God.

the promise of the gospel was not revealed on the basis of the law. If it had been revealed on the basis of the law then the law would have revealed our transgressions and our transgressions would have required the wrath of God to be dispensed. But because God brought salvation through the gospel as a gift he is not required to dispense wrath on us. And that's stinking awesome.

So God doesn't punish all the sins we commit. God doesn't dispense wrath against all the sins that even believers and Jews even gentiles and Jews commit. So how does God continue to keep his promises even with those who continue to sin?

Romans 4:16–17 ESV

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The answer is the same now that we had at the beginning of our message today it depends on faith. The overall message of the entire Bible is God's promises are fulfilled through faith.

God promised Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations and he would bless the world through him.

Think about the kind of faith that Abraham had to exercise when God told him at an old age that him and Sarah would have children and that nations would come from them? He had to believe then and trust in God. He had exercised the same faith that's referenced in the New Testament

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Romans 4:21 ESV

21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

This passage here is a reference to how Abraham had to trust God in that moment of God telling him he would be a father. Abraham had spent a lifetime hoping for a son and now he had to trust that God could do his work in abraham's life. Abraham had to live by faith.

God calls us, just like Abraham, David, and Paul, to live by faith.